


Cherry Red

by shallowlives



Category: Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Awsten + Travis' Slumber Party Podcast Submission, Blood, Hair Dyeing, I'm Sorry, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:34:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23851651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shallowlives/pseuds/shallowlives
Summary: Awsten decides to dye his hair red with Jawn's blood, because why not?
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	Cherry Red

**Author's Note:**

> First off, I want to say I obviously do NOT condone murder or attempting to dye your hair with bodily fluids. And I'm sorry if Awsten and Travis and whoever else actually somehow read this. Please don't be concerned I swear I'm actually nice
> 
> I'm also aware blood probably doesn't work the same as hair dye but shhhh

Awsten had spent the entirety of the afternoon covering his hair in bleach, working it through each and every strand of his hair until the chemical aroma permeated his bathroom and singed his nose. As he rinsed it off in the shower, scrubbing the burning sensation away until his scalp felt raw, the idea he’d had earlier came to mind.

That morning, when he’d gone to Target to pick up supplies, there were no boxes of red hair dye left, and the same at Hot Topic. Instead of wasting his day searching other stores for red hair dye like any other reasonable person, he’d had a thought spark within him when he was staring at the empty Hot Topic shelf as he tuned out the employee telling him there was none in the back either. Awsten knew there were many other substances that were red, one in particular he knew would be easy to obtain as long he was smart about it.

He finished rinsing the bleach out and turned the shower off, reaching out for the hanging towel. While he dried his hair, Awsten’s phone started to ring. He immediately let the wet towel drop onto his shoulder and reached for the phone to check who was calling; it was Jawn.

Awsten had already a few targets in mind, but he supposed it would be more convenient to get Jawn to come over. Jawn _trusted_ him, so to put it simply, he really had no idea of Awsten’s capabilities.

“Hey, what’s up?” Awsten asked, lifting the phone to his ear. He couldn’t help but smile at himself in the mirror, imagining the possibilities if he actually was able to convince Jawn to come over.

“I finished editing some concert photos.” Jawn said. “Are you too busy to look at them now?”

“You could just come over and show them to me, actually.” Awsten suggested. “We could hang out, maybe order a pizza or something.”

Jawn thought it over for a moment. “Yeah, sure, I could do that.”

“Great, I’ll be there in half an hour. See ‘ya.”

“See ‘ya.” Awsten hung up quickly and let out the laugh that had been simmering inside him, a giggle dripping with bad intentions. He got to work plugging in the hair dryer, turning it on and letting the heat breeze through his hair so it would be dry and ready by the time Jawn arrived.

The doorbell rang just as Awsten had finished preparing the bathroom. He’d already come up with a plan, one that he was sure would work.

Awsten answered the door, made small-talk with Jawn, and entertained him by pretending to be interested in the photos he was showing him on his laptop. Jawn was certainly curious about Awsten’s bleach-blonde hair, but it hardly took any effort to convince him the next color was still a surprise he didn't want to divulge.

Halfway through the photos Jawn was showing, Awsten excused himself to go to the bathroom. He made sure everything was in place, and then picked up one of the interchangeable blades for his electric razor he’d ‘accidentally’ left on the bathroom counter. Awsten’s skin stung as he dragged it across the skin of his inner arm, fresh red blood pooling to the surface and dripping onto the counter. A _beautiful_ color, he thought. He hoped his hair would turn out the same vivid shade.

Awsten inhaled and exhaled, readying himself, and then feigned a sharp cry. “Fuck!” He screamed. “Jawn, help! I’m bleeding, I accidentally cut myself!” Then, as part of the plan, he fell against the wall and to the floor with a thump he knew would be audible through the bathroom walls, holding his bleeding arm and clenching his eyes shut.

It was only a few seconds before Jawn threw open the bathroom door and rushed to Awsten’s side, kneeling down. “Are you okay?” He demanded, clearly alarmed.

“I accidentally cut myself. I left a shaving razor on the counter, and I was reaching for the soap when it scraped my skin!” He wasn’t sure whether or not he was panicking too much, but it seemed to be working.

“Let me see your arm.”

Awsten tentatively uncovered his arm, showing the extent of the bleeding to Jawn.

“Shit, that’s really bad.” He held out his hand to Awsten. “Stand up so I can help you rinse it off in the sink.”

“Can’t.” Awsten shook his head. He pretended to try to sit up, but then fell back against the wall weakly. “I think I almost passed out. I can’t get up. Could you get the bandages out of the cabinet? It’s the bottom drawer, I think.”

“We really should rinse it first.” Jawn insisted, his eyes darting back and forth between Awsten’s arm and his eyes concernedly.

This was absolutely not part of Awsten’s plan, but the only thing he could do was to play it off. “Okay, get out the bandages and then you can help me up to rinse it off, ‘kay? Just hurry up, I’m bleeding here.”

“Fine.” Jawn turned around, sitting on his knees as he opened the bottom cabinet drawer and began to search through the clutter for bandages. While Jawn was busied with that, Awsten reached under the bathroom scale he’d made sure to fall right next to and pulled the handle of a long, glimmering knife from underneath the sleek space. He raised the knife over Jawn’s neck, and without hesitation, let it fall.

The knife easily pierced through his skin, causing Jawn to become instantly paralyzed as it broke through with a splatter of blood across their bodies and the bathroom floor. Jawn gasped, but barely could get any words out as blood flooded his throat and became thick on his tongue, the bitter, tangy taste of defeat being all he could taste. He struggled to scream.

“A…” He choked out, “Awsten.” and then he coughed hard, his posture crumpling as he fell against the cabinet.

Sure, Awsten would miss having such a talented photographer and someone who could deal with editing such a crackhead podcast, but the color of the blood that soaked the knife as he lifted it out was absolutely _perfect,_ an insanely accurate match to the vibe of the fourth Waterparks album. Awsten didn’t reply to Jawn, didn’t offer any reason to him to explain the nature of this; instead, Awsten licked the blood off the knife, slowly to savor it, and then stabbed Jawn again.

The second stab caused a shriek this time, one mustered with all the energy Jawn had left, but then the knife must have hit some sort of important nerve or something of the sort, because the shriek was cut off and Jawn’s body became completely limp. The life fizzled out of him, his arms falling and becoming even more slumped against the counter before slowly sliding to the floor while the beautiful, vivid crimson of blood dripped all over.

Awsten had no time to enjoy what he had just accomplished; there was no time to waste if he wanted to make Jawn’s blood of any use. He removed the knife from Jawn’s neck and leapt to his feet. Awsten first rinsed off his arm and slapped some gauze on his wound in a hurry, then grabbed Jawn’s body by his shoulders to drag him to the bathtub. It was hard to pick up Jawn all at once, considering he was a fully-grown man, but Awsten managed to get him in the bathtub by swinging his legs over the brim of the bathtub and pushing his back up until the corpse tumbled into the bathtub.

Awsten grabbed the bowl he had ready on top of the counter and picked up Jawn’s head, placing the bowl below his neck pouring out blood. It only took a matter of seconds before the bowl was completely filled and Awsten could mix in some conditioner to thicken the mixture along with the coagulation.

While Awsten dipped the dye brush into the red mixture, raising it to the first strand of hair to lather it on, he looked back at Jawn’s body reflected in the mirror. He started to meticulously apply the dye to his hair and said, “I guess you could say it’s _cherry red,_ right?”

Jawn didn’t say anything; he was too busy being dead. Oh well.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, sorry.


End file.
